Can You Still Breathe? Cuz Regret's Around the Cor
by Anime-Freak005
Summary: The time is now...he is weak, I might never get a chance like this agian...I will fulfill my role as an avenger...This isn't my story my friend made it and her computer is messed up right now so she wanted me to put it up for her so yea.....


Dear Readers,  
i'm very proud to present (drumroll)... My first story to be posted on FANFICTION! (oh yea). So, i've heard from many people that it's good and all but you are the critiques not those many people. Please be kind yet stern for my first story.  
Many of the contents in this story will leave you saying, "WTF? That will never happen!" And yes i know, but it's good to dream. ;) So, enjoy! (and use your imagination for some parts) ;)  
Naruto doesn't belong to me, it was made by the guy who made it. Not me. Most of the plot of the story is mine, but the rest is the guy. I would thank Anime-Freak005 who put this up on her thingy in fanfiction. Alrighty then, enjoy!  
;)  
-Author

Can you still Breathe? Because regret's around the corner.

Chapter 1: The time

It was time. It was the perfect time. He was venerable. There was no one there. They all deserted him, for losing to a shinobi. They thought he was unbeatable. They thought he was invincible. They thought wrong. Revenge was at hand, and regret was right around the corner. How was I to know?

Kisame walked back and forth, back and forth outside the door, that he wouldn't let anyone in, not even his own right hand partner. He was supposedly treating himself with his own medicine and wouldn't let anyone else help him. So Kisame was suck here out of his door watching the nighttime darkness just take him away. Kisame knew that the beginning that he was given this partnership that he would not be let in his personal life so easily. But he eventually got a few stories and a few past experiences and learned to be as close as he would let him as a friend. And now that everyone has deserted him, he chose to stay behind with his "friend." But how could he help if help was not wanted? So all he did was stay out for a certain person who would know what had happened.

The wound was really bad. It was worse than he thought and the medicine was not working. But there was no time for this. He knew he would come and there was no time to recover, no time to prepare. But in the end he had to. Itachi cautiously lifted himself out of bed as more blood from his abs and back spilled onto the floor. Pain took over him as he felt blood accumulate in his throat, stinging, until it was finally forced into his mouth and onto the already red, wet carpet. His arms were bandaged, but the red liquid was still seeping out, while his bloodshot eyes rolled onto his head, apparently knocked out from all the fatigue. A few hours later, he regained consciousness and started thinking about his situation. _I can't be looked upon as weak, so I can't ask Kisame for help. He'll be coming soon. I must get ready. I must think about the precise attack towards my advantage even while wounded. The exact weapons. The exact statistics. _Itachi got up, with much difficulty, and started gathering his items while thinking on how he could win with disadvantages. His old Akatsuki robe lay on the chair as he picked up a new pure black robe and clung it over his bleeding body. Then he gathered ten kunai, five shirukens, 2 pieces of string, and started to mold chakra while resting his sharingan to show unemotional black eyes under long dark eyelashes. _I've got it all figured out towards my advantage yet there is an 80 chance that I will live. I'll push the chances. _Itachi then stopped and remembered a far off memory with someone he always thought that understood him, or at least had more than expectations for him and thought of him as a person, not a thing. The love … The talk… The fight… The loss… The pain… The fear… The anger… The regret… All of these carried under one category that defined Uchiha Itachi: his life. The life that he chose to live and the path that he chose to take that all came down to this night, this moment. It was time.

He knew that this was the perfect time to find him. He had risked everything by overhearing Kakashi in the hospital talking about his battle. Kakashi-sensei had barley gotten away, but he wounded him severely and so was weak. He had gathered his things and ran off towards his base while thinking about what exactly he was doing and if he was actually sane. But as he was running, a small saying from an old friend came up into his mind, "You will kill him and then what? Will that bring back your clan? Are your mom and dad going to revive suddenly from the dead? In the end, you're going to be completely alone with no where to go and no one to turn to and then what? You lost the things that could've been, hurt the people you used to love, and betrayed everything you thought was true! And then what!" He suddenly stopped running. Yes, and then what? What would this prove? No, he couldn't back out now. He had come much too far and broken to many people to prove a worthless point. He would fulfill it. It would be done. Filled with new spite running through his veins, he too ran after a sightless goal. It would be done. It was time.

There are times when you feel that there is absolutely nothing you can do. That you can't change the person you love and make him come out of the darkness and into the light again. And then sometimes, you have no choice.

It was time.

End of chapter 1.

Chapter 2: I Wonder Why.

It's been a while since I heard his voice. Since I saw his innocence. And all this time I've been wanting to see him, knowing that he wouldn't let me in, especially since I couldn't let him in. And whose fault is that?

I've been nothing but a tool all my life. Used by the clan and only used by the clan. He always said, "You are my son" when I always thought, "Am I?" No. I was only his son when I did something to promote the clan. To make them look important. That's all they cared about. My anger turned into violence and led to pain then led to no emotions. But he never saw me as I tool. Maybe that's why I let him live. Maybe.

I wish I never brought it up and I wish that I never mentioned it. Now that I look at it, he seemed to not think of me as that until I told him to. That must be why he even hates me more. But then I messed it up. I fought with my emotions and that got him scared. At that exact moment, I lost everything. I lost the only one who saw me differently. I lost him. (I told him to fight with hatred because I knew that he would never win; that will be one)

Before I do the thing I do, I want to know: Why did he not kill me when he had the chance? I knew I was weak, but I am strong now. And why was he always telling me to hate him? Every time I tried to fight him, I fought with hatred. Why wasn't that working? Maybe I didn't have power at the time. At least, now I do. So this should defiantly work now. Right?

I told him to fight with hatred because I knew that he would never win. He doesn't fight like that. I fought with a deeper hatred when I killed them all. The hatred I felt is the kind that is screwed into your heart. His hatred is only covering it, and is not deeply inside. Because he knows, deep down, that I was right.

There's something about killing your brother that makes you think more. Especially if you know that this is the right time. He didn't want to kill him when he was wounded, but now, the pain was too much and it didn't matter anymore. He just had to die. "What would this prove?" _Just get out of my head! I don't care anymore, I don't care!_ "To kill me you must despise me…" _I am! But why can't you die!_ "Sasuke, don't leave!" _I have to. _Sasuke stopped for a while and rested to let all the words ringing in his head just to die down. Why does my head say its right, when my heart says it's not?

But I won't interfere. I'll just stay and look. And when he gets the satisfaction he needs, I tell him again.

"And then what?"

Chapter 3: Can You Still Breathe?

Kisame suddenly stopped his endless routine to answer the call of death. He was here and with absolutely no mercy. "Let me through." 5 kunai shot out of no where, but Kisame was much too fast and blocked them with his huge bandaged samehada. But suddenly, Kisame couldn't move as he saw a bit of string tied around his sword. With inhuman strength he brought his sword down and move to the side as three more shiruken appeared where Kisame's foot could've been. "Fine, we'll do this the hard way."

Itachi looked up while putting away the weapon in his pocket. He's here. His dark eyes suddenly turned bloody red.

I came here to kill only one person. I guess there will be two bodies dead tonight.

It looks like Sasuke got a bonus. But that's not what he wants.

"Hello, little brother."

The only surviving Uchiha brothers stared each other in unblinking bright red eyes. Itachi was defiantly in pain though he showed no sign of it. Sasuke's long dark black hair was a shocking resemblance for his brother's pony tail. It was even more scarier when you saw that they were the same height and had the same face, except for the facial lines.

"Ready to die?"

"Ready to get disappointed? Again?"

"Not today."

There was a flash and both Uchiha's started to fight for the finish. And I would put all the details in, but I'm too lazy so I want you all to use your imagination… What am I thinking? You people don't have imagination! Otherwise why would you be reading this? (Naw, I'm just kidding with ya.) ;)

Even though Itachi had a complete and perfect strategy, it wasn't working. Sasuke was fully rested in even had new jutsu's and more energy. But in the middle of the battle, Itachi noticed that there was something wrong. Sasuke would hit and cut him, yes, but he would not get any major artery or vein organs or chakra vessels. Either way it still hurt.

Now all I want you to do is imagine them fighting until Sasuke finally has him cornered on the ground with a kunai near his throat.

Itachi lay on the ground with absolutely no emotions in his eyes even while Sasuke had him near death.

_Why won't he show a sign of emotion! I want him to feel pain! I want him to suffer! Why does it seem that revenge isn't what I thought it would be…? No. I have to do this. I know that this is what I must do. It was supposed to be done a long time ago._

"Brother," Sasuke started, "I wanted to ask you a question, but as you lay here at my mercy, I realize that you will still not give me an answer. But I came here to do one thing and one thing only and nothing else will get in the way this time."

_It's the real deal this time._

_He might actually do it._

_Sasuke, what will this prove?_

"I forgive you."

It seemed years that Itachi had ever felt any emotion. Here, he let his guard down, his sharingan go away and showed his black eyes filled with pure shock. The look Sasuke's eyes had were not of hatred, but of sadness.

"I realized a long time ago that killing you will do nothing. And I also realized that you will keep on killing people and putting them through the same pain that I have. But, I don't care anymore. Revenge doesn't cost me a thing, and it won't give me a thing either. So why should I continue this endless and painful road? I wanted relief and mistook it for being revenge. I forgive you brother. Maybe someday, you'll forgive me too."

Sasuke let go of Itachi's robe, put away his kunai, and walked away, leaving behind his scratched headband of Konoha.

Reaching a nearby tree, Sasuke decided to rest for a while. Relief was on his side now. And it felt really good. Then, a blonde haired boy came down from the branches and said, "And what did this prove?" Sasuke grinned. "That maybe, after all that, I'm not my brother." Naruto grinned back. "Sasuke," he said, "I think it's time to go home." As he held out his hand, for a friend in need, Sasuke thought that maybe he actually did something good in his life.

Itachi looked at the Konoha headband as Sasuke left him on the floor.

Maybe that's why I never killed him. Because he had a future filled with promise. But mostly, because he loved me for who I was, and never became who I am. And he knew how to forgive.

A tear fell to the floor in an empty forgiving night, filled with no regret.


End file.
